This course will prepare you to be an effective virtual teacher. In this course you will learn about the national standards for quality online courses from iNACOL, SREB and the NEA, how to build community, strategies for working with virtual students, and assessment techniques.
Get actionable tips and strategies for applying the key principles of cooperative and collaborative learning in your classroom and incorporating them into your lesson plans.
Knowledge gained through investigation produces greater student understanding and achievement. Discover the key principles of inquiry-based learning, and observe and assess its effectiveness on class lessons and student Web projects. Develop an inquiry facilitation plan for a unit to implement inquiry based learning in your classroom.
Your computer can do more than you may know - discover how to use it as a presentation tool, a personal productivity assistant, a catalyst for creating interactive group experiences, and a student learning center. For your final assignment, choose one of these applications, then create and implement a lesson plan to apply in your classroom.
Online facilitators take on many important roles and, thus, wear different managerial, technical, social, and pedagogical hats. Effective facilitators must know how to provide formative feedback, offer technical guidance, foster community, and communicate 'from the side' in a way that encourages learners to construct knowledge together. This course will formally introduce you to those roles and provide you with the opportunity to try on and practice wearing several of these hats. Through research-based articles and readings, discussions, collaborative projects, and other interactive experiences, you will have multiple opportunities to build and master online facilitation skills. A simulation environment (Facilitator Training Lab) will give you an opportunity to practice specific facilitator skills. To synthesize all your learning, you will create a case study based on the experiences of a hypothetical online facilitator as your final project.
PBS Teachers Live! Webinars feature education technology experts and PBS producers sharing resources and strategies to help teachers use digital media to engage students in rich learning experiences. Recordings of all of our previous events are available on the archive page.
Activity Packs are a growing library of theme-based widgets containing links to high-quality PBS resources and activities for multiple grade levels. If you like one, grab it!
Discover how music, art and words can evoke our emotions and also unify us in protest, joy and sorrow.
Create a musical instrument and learn about rhythm, sound, how music affects mood and the role it plays in our lives.
